The Keys
by IHKF
Summary: Kasumi has a few questions for her daughter...Rated T for womanly things. Guys may not wanna read. xD


Note to a friend of mine: I know, I know… I lied and said this would be up earlier in the week but I couldn't seem to find the time to write it, and when I did have the time I had a MASSIVE headache. D: Forgive me! DX

I thought that we could all use another humor-filled Kibō Clan one-shot, since this will be MAINLY what the series is, so I wrote one. Forgive me if the writing in this one is not at its best. I'm still suffering from a minor headache but I felt I should get this up. ^^'

I suppose I should leave this note in every one-shot from now on…

Before you read this, you should read my one-shots "Mama", "Kaze Hikari", and "The Kibō Clan" to understand what's going on here. Heck, even just reading Mama would work.

Enjoy!

"I caught one!"

Kasumi smiled warmly at Chiyo as she made a tally, staining the white sheet of paper. Riku's parents had suggested (more-so forcefully threw them out) that the strongest team go on a little bit of a vacation, considering how many missions they had taken up lately. "We are having fish _tonight_- YEAH BABY!" Chiyo continued to stab the fish in the water with her daggers, laughing maniacally as she did so. Haruna raised an eyebrow at her friend's actions as she polished her sword, stopping to wonder exactly what the hell was going through her head.

Kasumi sweat-dropped. "Ummm…. Riku?"

"Apparently her love to kill on the battlefield carries over to her fishing." Her responded bluntly, taking a seat beside her. His white hair was even screwier than usual as a head-band circled his forehead. She took note that Riku typically didn't wear one of these and came to the conclusion it was most likely because he wanted to make sure any bandits that may be around the area knew not to screw with them because they were ninjas.

"She's turning the pond red!" Akemi yelped, standing up and jumping around in place. Her sunflower-patterned dress swayed with her motions as she screeched and frantically tried to figure out how to respond. Her blonde hair was in curls, something she had decided she liked to do when the bouncing strings wouldn't be getting in her way on a mission. This was the first time she got to wear it that way in the last five weeks.

"Awesome!" Ayumu jumped to the lake, taking out his own sword as he stacked fishes onto it like a kabob. The water became a darker shade of red with each new kill. The two fish murderers laughed as the blood mixed into the water.

"You two are AWFUL!" Akemi exclaimed in pure alarm. Her pupils were so small you could hardly see them. Her entire body shook as her arms both reached up to be pressed against her chest as though that would help her in any way.

"Oh quit whining and help us fish!"

"I'm not helping you destroy a home of fish for no reason, you slaughterer!"

Ayumu sucked in his cheeks as he threw one hip out with sass, for a boy, and crossed his arms. "Stop being a wuss. You're a ninja. Act like it!" He put his sword away before bending down and holding his hands together to hold some of the bloody water- proof of their evil deeds. "I am NOT being a wuss! I'm being empathetic to the little fishes!"

Ayumu rolled his eyes as he looked up at his sister and threw the water in his hands, covering her in a fusion of water and fish blood.

Akemi took a horrified gasp as she screamed her head off, charging at her brother as the two went tumbling into the middle of the stream, yanking at each-other's hair and yelling obscenities at one another.

Kasumi sighed. "Alright you three, that's enough for today. Akemi is right. We already have more than enough fish. We should leave more for other people who may come by here."

* * *

Chiyo pouted. "I still think we could have used more fish. Akemi and I have big appetites."

"Oh stop that. You just wanted to kill something again." Haruna sighed as she took a chopped-up piece of fish with her chop-sticks and placed it gently past her lips. Chiyo looked at her, confused and angered by her statement, unsure how to respond. Haruna quirked her eyebrow in amusement as Chiyo slammed her hands onto her knees and exclaimed "SHUT UP!", letting her know that she had no better comeback.

Kasumi shook her head at her friend's antics as she dipped her fish in soy-sauce, slipping it into her mouth and chewing for a decent amount of time before swallowing. "So how are you enjoying being a member of the Kibō Clan?" Riku asked, sitting cross-legged next to her. The fire illuminated the team-members, casting some type of warm glow over the six.

"Oh I'm enjoying it so far."

"Nice not being hunted every single day, isn't it?"

"Yes… it is."

"I wonder if Al feels the same way?"

Kasumi smiled at Riku's pondering and thought about it herself. Alpha had decided she didn't want to go on this little vacation with her and the rest, seemingly more enticed to sit in front of the recently-discovered TV. She giggled at the thought. She had been waking up every morning that she had been back at the village to a mesmerized Alpha sitting in front of the TV.

Multiple times she had taken the "safety" precaution to turn it off when it seemed as though Alpha had accidently flipped to a 'dirty' channel.

The last thing anybody needed was for Alpha to get curious about sex.

She didn't even know if the poor thing could reproduce.

Kasumi sighed. No, not a thing. Alpha was now not only to be considered a human- but her daughter.

Her daughter. That sounded strange when she was still so young. She was only 16 years old and she had a daughter already. She didn't even do anything to really acquire the child. Hell, Alpha wasn't even a child! She was her clone! She was a clone that was only a few months old and very naïve to the world.

Crap. That did kind of technically make her a child then, didn't it?

Yep, the sitting in front of the TV enthralled by the cartoon characters on the screen proved it.

Wait… would Alpha go through puberty, then? Would she…?

Kasumi dropped her chop-sticks as a burst of realization hit her, her eyes wide as the dinner-plate she was eating off of.

"Kasumi?" Riku asked in worry, surprised and scared by her sudden actions. The other four turned to look at her as well, knowing that the tone of Riku's voice was something they should worry about.

"Guys… you don't think Alpha can get a… time of month, do you?"

* * *

Kasumi dropped her bags as she looked towards the clone.

She still sat in front of the TV, her expression blank save for a little tiny flame of curiosity. Kasumi quickly walked over to make sure that there wasn't any inappropriate foul-play going on in whatever it was she was watching and was relieved to see it was nothing more than a coyote chasing after a road-runner, only to fall off of the cliff before her could catch the creature.

"Alpha?"

"Yes?"

"Ummm… are you enjoying the TV?"

"Yes."

"…."

"…."

"Mother, I think you are being a 'creeper'."

"Yes I am, Al. Yes I am." Kasumi sighed and placed her head into her hand, unsure of how to ask if her clone was going through that stage. Haruna wanted to see if she could get it out of the clone herself, but was denied when Kasumi said that Alpha was her blood, no pun intended, and that she would do it herself.

What the hell was she thinking?! She didn't know how to do this!

"Is there something you need?" Alpha reached over to the remote and turned the TV off, turning back to the shinobi.

"Yes, there is. Al… have you been getting any weird cravings?" Kasumi took a seat next to her on the floor, watching for her expression. Alpha shook her head no.

"Have you been tired lately?"

"Yes, but I think that's because I don't know how to sleep?"

"Are you kidding? Have you ever slept?!"

"No."

"You just close your eyes and lay down!"

"Oh."

Okay. She was even worse than a child. Well, at least she knew how to speak.

"That isn't what's bothering you, is it?"

"Ah… no. It's not."

"You don't trust me?"

"What?"

Alpha looked back towards the TV that had been turned off moments before. "It must seem strange to you. One moment I am trying to kill you and protect Donovan and the next moment I've killed Donovan and I am now calling myself your offspring. I wouldn't trust myself, either."

Kasumi's eyes narrowed at the clone. She opened her mouth to say something only to be interrupted by Alpha once more.

"But I am sure that I will earn your trust in due time. As long as I continue to fight on your side and follow your orders then I should be trust-worthy, correct?"

"Alpha, living here isn't like living with Donovan." This gained her 'daughter's' attention. "I'm not sure what the living arrangements were like or how he treated you, but here you're family. You have not only killed that horrible excuse for a man but you came to me of all people to help to teach you what a family was like. Not to mention how you helped in that little mini-war we had with those people who attempted to raid our village a few months ago. If that doesn't say you're trustworthy I don't know what does." She smiled warmly as she wrapped an arm around Alpha's shoulders pulling her into a warm side-embrace just as her own mother used to do. Oh Kasumi remembered those embraces. Every time Kasumi would become scared or frightened of what was to come in the future Ayame would smile and simply pull her into a hug, caress her hair and say nothing. Kasumi would always feel her heart beating in a fashion that just seemed to calm her. It warmed her from her arms and up and down. She had fallen asleep in those hugs so many nights- especially the ones where Hayate would go out on a mission and neither would know if he would return home.

She missed those hugs so much, but the best way to help that now was to give alpha the same benefit.

Sure it was kind of strange hugging your double but Alpha wasn't just her double anymore. _She was her daughter and her friend and she would do her best to raise her._

Alpha melted into the hug, her head leaning onto her shoulder. Kasumi knew that she was feeling her heartbeat and relaxing, setting her heart at a similar pace.

"And to add on to that… you should have come with us to the park, Al. We missed you."

"I couldn't."

"Why?"

"…"

"Al?"

"I hate fish."

"Huh?"

Alpha momentarily had a look of boredom/annoyance on her face, her lips pouting and forming a small circle. "I thought about going but when I saw you guys didn't pack anything food-wise except for soy-sauce and wasabi I realized you all were going to go fishing. I hate fish. Fish is nasty."

Kasumi's eyes widened.

"Not to mention there are lots of bears in the wild. Bears are… not something I would like to run into."

Kasumi felt tears welling up in her eyes.

Alpha hated her first food and was scared of something for the first time.

"MY LITTLE GIRL IS GROWING UP!"

Kasumi threw her other arm around her daughter, who in turn set her free hand onto her mother's back, blinking at the teenager before nuzzling into the bear hug.

Riku stood at the door, leaning against it with his arms folded as he smirked.

He quietly reached into the room and picked up the new ninja's bags, swinging them over his shoulder before returning to his own room (Kasumi's being on the way) and heading to take a bath.

"We should probably head to Key West next time, then, if Al-chan is so scared of bears."


End file.
